Suchergebnisse

We use methods developed by the Commitment to Equity Institute to assess the effects of government taxation, social spending and indirect subsidies on poverty and inequality in Ghana. We also simulate several policy reforms to assess their distributional consequences. Results show that, although the country has some very progressive taxes and well-targeted expenditures, the extent of fiscal redistribution is small, but about what one would expect given Ghana's income level and relatively low initial inequality. Results for poverty reduction are less encouraging: were it not for the in-kind benefits from health and education spending, the overall effect of government spending and taxation would actually increase poverty in Ghana. Eliminating energy subsidies and at the same time reallocating part of the savings to well-targeted transfer programs could lower the fiscal deficit while reducing inequality and protecting the poor.

The incidence of gonorrhea in Canada is apparently increasing rapidly despite laws for the control of the disease. The requirement to report the names of cases of gonorrhea is inhibiting surveillance. Greater control of gonorrhea would be encouraged by rescinding existing legislation and abandoning the legalistic approach to management of the disease.

The causes of unemployment incidence in interwar Britain have been the subject of much debate since Benjamin and Kochin claimed that it was due largely to generous unemployment benefits. We use the records for 30,000 workers from the New Survey of London Life and Labour (1929–31) to estimate the determinants of unemployment incidence. We find no significant effects of the benefit–wage ratio on the unemployment probability for adult males when we allow for skill and industry effects. Separate regressions for younger males and for females also fail to reveal significant effects from unemployment benefits on the pattern of unemployment incidence.